Third Sunday of Lent (Cycle A): Christianity Is a Proposal of Marriage

Back in the 90's, I saw a quote that has stayed with me over the years. The quote said: Christianity is not a religion. It is a proposal of marriage. In many ways, those few words capture the essence of our faith.

In the Old Testament, the relationship between God and Israel is often depicted as a marriage. Israel is the bride, many times unfaithful, and God is the aggrieved husband who keeps calling his beloved back to him. As Scripture scholar Brant Pitre expounds in his book Jesus the Bridegroom, the marriage metaphor continues in the New Testament.

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Third Sunday of Lent (Cycle B): The Grace of God Is Not Transactional

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus shows anger because the Temple leaders are taking advantage of the people. According to the Mosaic Law, the Israelites must travel to Jerusalem periodically and have various sacrifices offered on their behalf in the Temple, many of which involve animals.

However, the Temple leaders make a financial racket out of the necessary sacrifices.

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Second Sunday of Lent: The Gate of Heaven Is in the Shape of the Cross

Modern audiences are usually horrified by the account of the sacrifice of Isaac. How could, the objection goes, God be so cruel as to command Abraham to sacrifice his son, even just as a test of his willingness, even without requiring to go through with the sacrifice itself? But our objections are rooted in our own cultural setting. We need to see the situation from Abraham's perspective.

Child sacrifice was a common practice among the pagan religions at the time of Abraham. Many parents would offer the lives of their children in exchange for material blessings. For Abraham, the command to sacrifice Isaac would not have been shocking or unusual. The surprise would have been the command to stop the sacrifice. God was teaching Abraham that he did not need to perform such an evil act to curry favor with him. Quite the contrary.

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First Sunday of Lent: The Desert Helps Us Find Our True Treasure

Before he starts his ministry, Jesus goes out into the desert to pray and fast. We are called to do the same during this Lenten season. In Christian spirituality, the desert has always been a symbol of spiritual purification. We will most likely not spend time in an actual desert praying and fasting, as Jesus did, but we can enter into the desert experience by pushing aside the many things that distract us from our relationship with God.

What are the things we use for comfort? Do we go from one source of digital distraction to another? Do we reach for food or coffee or another source of pleasure when we are stressed? We should identify and name the crutches we use to deal with the ups and downs of daily life. Some of these crutches are deeply destructive, while others might be okay in moderation. But we need to examine the role they play in our lives.

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Ash Wednesday: What Is Our Recompense?

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving have traditionally been the three pillars of Lent. Jesus warns us against engaging in these practices for show, for building up our public reputation. Instead, we are to pray, fast, and give alms in secret in order to receive our recompense from God. But what is it that we gain from these practices? What is our recompense?

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12 Ways to Make Lent a Life-changing Experience

As Catholics, one of the most counter-cultural things we can do is to observe the season of Lent. In our hyper-materialistic, instant grat culture, the idea of 40 days of deliberate self-denial is sure to be seen as crazy. But Lent is a profound opportunity for positive transformation.

The focus of Lent is fourfold:

- Preparing for the liturgical celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ, especially through the Triduum liturgies of Holy Week.

- Atoning for our sins through penitential practices.

- Becoming spiritually purified so that we can be more fully opened to the presence of Christ in our daily lives.

- Preparing ourselves and the world for the Second Coming of Christ.

In this article, I will explore 12 disciplines that can help us to set out on a path of life-giving transformation during the Lenten season. The first three of these, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, are especially encouraged by the Church during this penitential season.

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14 Tips for a Catholic Celebration of St. Valentine's Day

Catholic reactions to Valentine's Day range from a whole-hearted embracing of the day with all of its commercialized dimensions, to utter disdain, wishing nothing more than that the day might be obliterated from our calendar. But I would propose an approach different from both of these. I would, instead, advocate for an intentionally Catholic celebration of the day. After all, whether Valentine's Day is a Christian holiday that was secularized, or a pagan holiday that was Christianized and then re-secularized, or simply a commercial holiday made up for the benefit of merchants, the day is tied to the date of a Catholic feast. As Catholics, let's claim, or reclaim, this day as St. Valentine's Day, and let's celebrate it as one of our special Catholic days.

Below are 14 tips for how we can do so (plus a bonus one at the end). These suggestions are intended for Catholic couples, but others might benefit from them as well.

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